Source:The Gathering Storm Book Tour, Harvard Coop, Cambridge, MA 5 November 2009 - Shannon Berndston reporting
'The Gathering Storm Book Tour, Harvard Coop, Cambridge, MA 5 November 2009' Report by Shannon Berndston Other information that we gleaned from dinner included learning that Aviendha is the favorite out of the three in Rand’s “harem.” Hopefully we’ll get to see more of Pevara being awesome, but that could possibly appear in a novella on Brandon’s web page that will fill in some missing holes. But no promises! And one last interesting fact, in order to get the Illianer and Taraboner accents right, he wrote the book then went back and did a search for all the characters of those nations and then worked on their crazy accents. ... After dinner we trekked over to the Harvard Coop for the signing. Brandon introduced the book. He talked a bit about what the Wheel of Time series means to him, and how he became a writer in the first place. Did you know that he wrote 13 books before getting one of them published? Elantris was number six in that list, but he never gave up on his dream of being a writer. We also heard about how Harriet read Brandon’s eulogy for RJ and subsequent read of Mistborn. After two chapters, she was hooked and knew that he was the man to finish her husband’s series. ... During the quick Q&A session several interesting questions were tossed Brandon’s way. One curious fan wanted to know what the other books Robert Jordan had planned after the main series was finished. There were going to be two prequels; one about Tam and one about Lan & Moiraine arriving at the Two Rivers. There were also going to be several outrigger novels. Brandon the fan doesn’t want to see the series go on and on, but now that he could be the one to write these books, he also doesn’t want it to turn into “the one ring” so to speak. He’d have to let it go eventually. However, the ultimate decision will be Harriet’s. ... A question was asked about Robert Jordan’s notes – particularly how they were left. We were told that Harriet has said that Jordan has left more in notes than in the series itself! Brandon then related a story about how he needed to know who was traveling with Perrin. He asked RJ’s assistants to look to see if there was a file with that info. A few days later he received an email titled “traveling with Perrin.” Unfortunately it listed every single person from the Two Rivers and their occupation who was travelling with Perrin. Some hadn’t even appeared in the books! Some other info that we learned during the Q&A included finding out that the most rewarding part of writing GS for Brandon was working with Harriet. It took 18 months of 14 hour days (although that includes a chunk of Towers of Midnight) to finish the book. The Two Rivers and Andoran characters were the easiest for him to write, while the Aiel and Seanchan were the hardest. URL for report: http://www.theoryland.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=74998#poststop Category:Interaction with Fans Category:Reports from Fans